This was a really challenging image to process, the background super nova remnant is very faint and took allot to get it to stand out in the background of all those stars. This is the first frame of what is to be at least a 9 frame mosaic that may take a few years!

Here is a nice description by "Sakib Rasool"

"NGC 40 is a bright planetary nebula consisting of a detailed core with an outer halo. This halo consists of a double structure with a diffuse inner halo attached to the central shell and a more irregular filamentary structure, which extends to the north. In addition to these array of features is a structure to the south, which has been interpreted as a jet. Professional observations with the Spitzer infrared telescope have shown the inner halo to consist of multiple overlapping radial spoke ring structures. This halo was discovered in 1987.
The central star of this planetary nebula has been well studied by professional astronomers and is also interesting in its own right. It belongs to the Wolf Rayet subclass of planetary nebula central stars that are hydrogen deficient and exhibit high mass loss rates and strong stellar winds. WR type central stars have been identified in a number of other planetary nebulae including IC 4663 and Abell 48.
Extending along the contours of the full field of this image are multiple colorful filaments belonging to the large faint supernova remnant CTA 1, which covers an area of 1.5 degrees across the sky. Both NGC 40 and CTA 1 are physically unrelated with the supernova remnant lying more distant in the background. NGC 40 is 3500 light years away and CTA 1 is 4500 light years away."

This was a really challenging image to process, the background super nova remnant is very faint and took allot to get it to stand out in the background of all those stars. This is the first frame of what is to be at least a 9 frame mosaic that may take a few years!

Here is a nice description by "Sakib Rasool"

"NGC 40 is a bright planetary nebula consisting of a detailed core with an outer halo. This halo consists of a double structure with a diffuse inner halo attached to the central shell and a more irregular filamentary structure, which extends to the north. In addition to these array of features is a structure to the south, which has been interpreted as a jet. Professional observations with the Spitzer infrared telescope have shown the inner halo to consist of multiple overlapping radial spoke ring structures. This halo was discovered in 1987.
The central star of this planetary nebula has been well studied by professional astronomers and is also interesting in its own right. It belongs to the Wolf Rayet subclass of planetary nebula central stars that are hydrogen deficient and exhibit high mass loss rates and strong stellar winds. WR type central stars have been identified in a number of other planetary nebulae including IC 4663 and Abell 48.
Extending along the contours of the full field of this image are multiple colorful filaments belonging to the large faint supernova remnant CTA 1, which covers an area of 1.5 degrees across the sky. Both NGC 40 and CTA 1 are physically unrelated with the supernova remnant lying more distant in the background. NGC 40 is 3500 light years away and CTA 1 is 4500 light years away."

I'm impressed that you as an amateur have captured all the important denizens of the Carina Nebula: Eta Carina and the Homunculus nebula, the Keyhole nebula, the "Loch Ness area" (with all the dust beasties at right in the full fram image) and open cluster Trumpler 14, including its weird, very black dust bunny. I believe that "Bok globule" is the technical name for that feature.

This was a really challenging image to process, the background super nova remnant is very faint and took allot to get it to stand out in the background of all those stars. This is the first frame of what is to be at least a 9 frame mosaic that may take a few years!

Here is a nice description by "Sakib Rasool"

"NGC 40 is a bright planetary nebula consisting of a detailed core with an outer halo. This halo consists of a double structure with a diffuse inner halo attached to the central shell and a more irregular filamentary structure, which extends to the north. In addition to these array of features is a structure to the south, which has been interpreted as a jet. Professional observations with the Spitzer infrared telescope have shown the inner halo to consist of multiple overlapping radial spoke ring structures. This halo was discovered in 1987.
The central star of this planetary nebula has been well studied by professional astronomers and is also interesting in its own right. It belongs to the Wolf Rayet subclass of planetary nebula central stars that are hydrogen deficient and exhibit high mass loss rates and strong stellar winds. WR type central stars have been identified in a number of other planetary nebulae including IC 4663 and Abell 48.
Extending along the contours of the full field of this image are multiple colorful filaments belonging to the large faint supernova remnant CTA 1, which covers an area of 1.5 degrees across the sky. Both NGC 40 and CTA 1 are physically unrelated with the supernova remnant lying more distant in the background. NGC 40 is 3500 light years away and CTA 1 is 4500 light years away."

This was a really challenging image to process, the background super nova remnant is very faint and took allot to get it to stand out in the background of all those stars. This is the first frame of what is to be at least a 9 frame mosaic that may take a few years!

Here is a nice description by "Sakib Rasool"

"NGC 40 is a bright planetary nebula consisting of a detailed core with an outer halo. This halo consists of a double structure with a diffuse inner halo attached to the central shell and a more irregular filamentary structure, which extends to the north. In addition to these array of features is a structure to the south, which has been interpreted as a jet. Professional observations with the Spitzer infrared telescope have shown the inner halo to consist of multiple overlapping radial spoke ring structures. This halo was discovered in 1987.
The central star of this planetary nebula has been well studied by professional astronomers and is also interesting in its own right. It belongs to the Wolf Rayet subclass of planetary nebula central stars that are hydrogen deficient and exhibit high mass loss rates and strong stellar winds. WR type central stars have been identified in a number of other planetary nebulae including IC 4663 and Abell 48.
Extending along the contours of the full field of this image are multiple colorful filaments belonging to the large faint supernova remnant CTA 1, which covers an area of 1.5 degrees across the sky. Both NGC 40 and CTA 1 are physically unrelated with the supernova remnant lying more distant in the background. NGC 40 is 3500 light years away and CTA 1 is 4500 light years away."

Hello, I would like to submit my newest astro photo to APOD discussion group.

I took this New Year's Day on a chilly 3 degree evening in my backyard in Loveland, Colorado. We don't have very dark skies here, around Bortle 7, but with proper post processing I am able to get some decent images.

I am a long time photographer, but I am pretty new to astrophotography. This is around the 20th or so astro photo I've ever taken. I am completely hooked!

This image was taken using a Nikon D600 DSLR (unmodified). It is a stack of 38 subs at 300 seconds each and 400 ISO. This is the first time I've shot Andromeda since getting a guide setup for my mount on Christmas.

While waiting for clearer skies, I decided to reprocess my Sombrero Galaxy image from last April. Here I use the relatively new PI PhotometricColorCalibration and a more detailed use of HDRMultiscaleTransform. As a result, colors should be more accurate and more detail is revealed near the core.